Changes to closed Knott’s ride fell short of state demands

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Riders on the Windseeker ride at Knott’s Berry Farm get stuck Sept. 19 around 4 p.m. The 300 foot high ride held about 20 people captive as the park’s ride maintenance crews worked to get the passengers down.

BUENA PARK – Knott’s Berry Farm never made all of the safety changes required to reopen the troubled Windseeker ride, so the park’s owner decided to move the attraction out of town.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., Knott’s parent company, announced last week that it would move the 301-foot Windseeker to the Worlds of Fun park in Kansas City, Mo. The ride’s new name will be SteelHawk.

Last September, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health ordered that Knott’s shut down Windseeker after passengers twice were stranded hundreds of feet in the air for hours. The state required that Knott’s comply with a list of safety requirements before it would allow the park to reopen its tallest ride.

While Knott’s added a new evacuation system and made other changes, the state found that Windseeker had the wrong kind of ladder. “We understand that Knott’s was either unwilling or unable to comply with this requirement to install ladders on the Windseeker ride,” Kathleen Hennessy, a division spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Stacy Frole, a Cedar Fair spokeswoman, said the “single rail” ladder with a harness was there all along but California inspectors recently discovered it didn’t meet state rules. However, that type of ladder is allowed in other states and Canada where Cedar Fair runs parks, Frole said.

Cedar Fair had the option of applying for a variance to allow the ladder, but officials weren’t sure how long that would take or whether they would be successful.

“We thought it was a better use of our capital investment to move it to Worlds of Fun,” Frole said.

The state charged at least $10,725 for its inspections between September 2012 and August, according to state documents.

The $5 million Windseeker opened with much fanfare in August 2011 as a thrill ride that shoots passengers up 300 feet and swings them around at a 45-foot angle. About a year later, Knott’s had two incidents in which passengers were stranded in the air, but had no injuries. The ride has been closed ever since the second incident.

Cedar Fair decided initially to shut down five other Windseeker-type rides at other parks, some of which had similar problems. The company has since installed new evacuation systems and features and reopened the rides for the 2013 season, Frole said.